14.1 Introduction

The humanitarian, political and military implications of errors made by armed forces in identifying targets, which result in the destruction of friendly, neutral, unthreatening or civil targets, with the associated loss of innocent lives, are unacceptable. In former times incidents of this type were not widely reported so their existence was largely unknown to the general public. However, the availability of news reports around the clock from the media from many countries, who have immediate access to mobile satellite links to their bases, means that news of any incidents occurring throughout the world can be broadcast worldwide almost instantly. In contrast, any deficiencies of armed forces or law enforcement agencies to detect, identify and deal with any infiltrating adversaries or terrorists, which result in the loss of life or of major economic assets, are equally unacceptable. In order to minimise the frequency of these types of situations, the ability to reliably and rapidly recognise airborne, naval and land targets provides an important contribution towards solving this problem.

Radar is the key sensor for providing a long-range, all weather, day and night, non-cooperative target recognition capability. In this final chapter, the main radar techniques employed for recognising targets and the key technical and implementation issues are summarised. In Section 14.2 is a general discussion on the developments in radar technology which are making radar target recognition a reality. The main radar target recognition techniques are summarised in Sections 14.3 14.6. System design issues, the implications on the requirements for radar...